The Laughing Dragon

by Kenneth Mahood

Vintage children's book

Genres: Picture Books, Dragons, Fantasy, Childrens

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1970

Reviews

[Rod Brown]

A weird, warped version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer introduces us to Hojo, a dragon who accidentally spews fire whenever he laughs. The emperor of Japan doesn't let him play any palace games, sending Hojo into exile, until a snowy winter natural disaster gives the dragon a shot at redemption.

Silly and weirdly drawn.

Side Note: I was ordering books for my wife from her Christmas want-list and inadvertently ordered copies of Mr. Biddle and the Birds on two separate orders weeks apart. Fortunately for me, the publisher of this book and the Biddle book used the same ISBN on their title pages back in the 1970s, and the book dealer pulls stock by ISBN instead of title, so instead of getting two Biddle books in the mail, I lucked into having two different books to wrap without even realizing the mistakes made by me, the dealer, and the publisher. My wife immediately knew this book wasn't on her want-list, but she also recognized it as a book she cherished as a child but had forgotten about, so it should have been on her want-list. The situation made a delightful surprise for her and a nifty research project for me unraveling the series of errors. No need for a return in the end, and we learn that three wrongs can make a right. A Christmas miracle!

[Cheryl]

You decide: is it dated or retro? Were you 7 or 8 years old in 1970? I was, and I appreciate this book. But if I had actually read it back then, I'd probably nostalgically love it to pieces. Very cute and smart if you happen to have access to a copy, but not worth a search.

[Jia]

[The Laughing Dragon. Kenneth Mahood. 32 p. New York : Charles Scribner's Sons, 1970]

Please, do not tell jokes to the dragon

Alkisah, kaisar Jepang hendak menikmati sarapan telurnya di musim gugur saat tiba-tiba telur tersebut retak, dan pecah. Dari dalam telur tersebut, muncullah seekor bayi naga. Karena naga itu menyenangkan dan rajin, Kaisar membiarkannya tinggal di istana. Naga yang bernama Hojo itu senang bersih-bersih dan bantu-bantu (i'll hire him to clean up my house, i guess).

Setiap dia tertawa, ia akan mengeluarkan napas hangat. Ini membantu karena kaki Kaisar suka kedinginan. Apalagi kan, lagi musim gugur. Bentar lagi salju turun. Tetapi oh, Hojo semakin lama semakin besar. Dan ia senang sekali tertawa. Setiap dia tertawa, bukan hanya asap yang keluar, tetapi api.

Kaisar mulai kewalahan karena Hojo mulai membakar orang-orang setiap ia tertawa. Lalu dikerahkanlah dukun istana untuk menyembuhkan api Hojo. Tak ada yang berhasil.

Akhirnya Hojo diasingkan ke sebuah pulau terpencil yang hanya dihuni seekor penyu bernama George. Hojo jadi sedih karena kangen terus sama Jepang.

Dan bagaimanakah kelanjutan kisahnya? Apakah Hojo akan kembali ke Istana Kaisar Jepang?

Hihihi...buku ini lucu juga kalo diterjemahin. Ada yang mau nerbitin? Ilustrasinya keren banget tau. Sukaaa banget.

[Lara]

I first read this as a child, but it is still an all time favorite. The pace is great and never a dull moment. This book highlights the qualities of laughter, control one's self, friends, giving, creative problem solving and awareness. A true treasure that has never grown old.

[Adele]

When I was a child my house had built-in shelves in the basement filled with picture books. I read them over and over. As an adult on goodreads I created a list of those books as best as I could from memory. The list can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

My wonderful husband has been finding copies of my childhood books and giving them to me as gifts, but I was even more surprised and delighted than usual to unwrap The Laughing Dragon this year. I immediately recognized it from my childhood, but I also knew it wasn't on the list! I had not had any memory of the book, though as soon as I saw it the story came rushing back, including specific illustrations such as the three-layered horizontal spread showing the things tried to "cure" the dragon's laughter, the little turtle huddled in his shell as sparks rained down on him from the dragon's breath above, and the tunnel melted in snow at least 100 feet deep covering the palace. Astonished, I asked my husband, "How did you know?" There was much confusion and laughter before he determined the book shares its ISBN with a completely different book that was on my list, Mr. Biddle and the Birds It was a Christmas miracle!

I don't know why I forgot this one - it is funny and weird and touching and kind of wonderful.

[寿理 宮本]

I still think this is cute, though I have mixed feelings about it being a book about Japanese people... by an Irish person. Not in and of itself a problem, except ALL my Asian culture books from my childhood were written by non-Asian people.

Just something I noticed. Better that we have SOME representation than none, I guess, but really? NO English-speaking Asian authors back in the day? At least that's greatly rectified NOW, but... a little annoyance.

As I said, though, the book is very cute! The art style is fun, the characters are fun, and the story is fun! I'll even disregard that, other than the dragon (Hojo), the only other named character is George the turtle, since Hojo meets George on an island "far away from Japan" (and, therefore, it shouldn't be surprising George has a very non-Asian name).

I'd recommend this book for all fans of dragons and cute things, but if I'm being honest, it's going to be difficult to find a copy nowadays. Too bad! It's so wholesome! Luckily, there are still loads of dragons and unicorns and other mythical animals making their way into wholesome books these days, so I'm not TOO worried about today's young readers missing out.

[Kistle Meito]

One of my child hood favorites.

[Sabina Hahn]

“It wasn’t true, he thought, that if you laughed, the whole world laughed with you.”

What a delightful story! Full of wonderful dragons and marvelously dry-humored turtles.

[Jamieb]

Family favorite here, always makes us smile.

[Sara]

Awww, this book is so cute. It was always high on my favorites as a kid. The art is really cool and the story is very creative and sweet. This is another one that will pass to a third generation when I have children. :)

[Angie]

mom's old favorite resurrected

[Asansing]

This was my favorite book when I was a kid. I had forgotten all about it until my daughter picked it out of my therapist's bookshelf! How funny!

[The]

Great illustrations.

[P.J. Kelley]

One of the first books I ever read. I have based my life on George the Turtle's teachings.

[ann]

I loved this book dearly.

[Alicia]

A re-read of a favorite childhood story book. Loved it just as much as when I was little. Adorable and well-written .

[jenmovies]

One of the most charming and lovely children's books of all time.

[Marianna]

A book from my childhood. A cute story about a dragon that saves the day with his firey laugh.